Gateway to the Future
by andychan57
Summary: In the year 2402, a peace keeping organization turned military regime, Xeta, has now taken over the civilized world. Despite its promise to maintain tranquility and peace, it resorts to war and bloodshed to kept those in the Outskirts in line. Nineteen year old pilot, Trieze Anderson, tries to escape the fighting but must return. Will he be ready to take on Xeta and his past?
1. FYI

**FYI this is an original piece of work**. It does not follow the Gundam Wing story line however; Gundam Wing inspired this story with its sci-fi/mecha genre and political-themed messages.

I hope you guys will enjoy the story and please feel free to leave any comments and/or criticisms!


	2. Prologue

Prologue

There is a legend: a young man. Prodigy. Lost. Dead. Some say he abandoned his home in search of something greater. Others say that home kicked him out and now he is wandering the planet for some small measure of peace. He started off in the military at a young age, and it wasn't long before the military soon learned of his...talents.

His current whereabouts? They say that he lives in one of the Outskirts-places that are longer part of Xeta whether it be because they lost the war or were outcasted. But most agree that he is dead, that he is only a myth.

Xeta.

All the talk is about Xeta. The kids here talk about it as if it were something grand, as if it were something worth aspiring towards.

The adults are too scared to talk. They hide in the shadows, scraping by what they can. They quiet the children who talk about Xeta, which only leads them to talk more.

Xeta.

The organization that started off with a promise of protection that grew into a country, that grew into a way of life. And if you weren't a part of Xeta-well isn't that a shame.

But with all the talk of Xeta I can assure you: there is nothing great about Xeta.

There are also rumors that the Exo-Frames, large humanoid robots piloted by humans with amazing technological capabilities, would come back. Rumors that they would once again fight for the Outskirts, fight for the unprivileged. That young man was a pilot of one of seven Exo-Frames.

As much as I long for him to be dead or a myth, I can say with confidence that the young man is neither dead nor a myth.


	3. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The year was 2402.

It was dark.

It was damp.

Oh, and it was noisy.

I hugged my sheets closer in an attempt to receive the warmth that had been so long denied to me. It was the first full year I had lived in the Outskirts. I kicked the ground watching the dry soil whisked around the fire like leaves.

"Sile, are you listening to me?"

I glanced over. Sitting next to me was a girl in her late teens. She went by the name Lily. It's funny since lilies died out over a hundred years ago.

"It's New Years Eve. You have to start getting along with people some day." Even in the darkness of the night, I could tell she was smiling. There was something about Lily that kept her in a good spirits.

"It's fine. I'm not in the festive mood." I stared into the fire. It was calming watching the raging flames dance among each other.

She let out a sigh, sitting closer to me. "Why are you always like that?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why are you always so to yourself? What are you afraid of?" She picked up a stick on the ground and began prodding the fire, disrupting my thoughts.

I looked at her. Out of all the people in the town, she was the only one with the courage to talk to me. Every one else just shied away. They said I was a bad omen because I never spoke, because I carried a sense of darkness. That's why the town nicknamed me Sile, short for silent. But that worked just fine with me. The less I interacted with people, the better.

"Shouldn't you be off celebrating with the others?" I asked.

She eyed me. "What you don't like my company?"

It wasn't that I didn't enjoy having her around. I hated it. There's one thing that I've been trying to do this whole time and that was to isolating myself.

"Yes," I finally said.

She made an _hmmm_ sound as if pondering what I had said. "You hungry?"

I didn't reply and continued peering into the orange and red flames, their shadows flickering on the bleak, dusty ground.

"Who gave you that?"

I turned to see her pointing to my necklace bearing a half circle. I scrambled to shove the dirtied necklace back into my shirt. "It's nothing."

"What are you hiding?"

I remained silent.

She stood up forcefully. "One of these days I'm going to find out what that secret is Sile." Lily began walking away but paused, looked back, and slyly smiled. "By the way, I wouldn't wait around 'til that got cold."

I looked down and to my surprise; she left me a chipped mug with hot tea filled to the brim and a plate of potatoes with an assortment of grilled meat. I chuckled. This girl was making it really hard to hate her. She even got me a stained fork. Although it was missing the middle prong, forks were hard to come by. It was not uncommon for people to eat with their hands. And, seeing that there wasn't much sanitation...well, one can only imagine the deaths that resulted.

I graciously took the meal and began eating. I took a peep back at the main square where the town was gathered. Even though they didn't have much, they made the best with what was around. They laughed. They drank. But more importantly, they had something hard to find. They had love. It warmed them when the cold winds tried to chill their flesh. It made them smile when water ran low, when food ran scarce.

I sipped at my hot tea. I felt the hot liquid run down my throat and warm my insides, yet there was a coldness that could not be warmed no matter how much I drank. The coldness reminded me who I really was, the coldness was always there.

Munching on a piece of pork, I realized I didn't feel too bad eating it since I had hunted it earlier myself. Everyone in the town served a purpose to the community. It was one of the first times in my life that my skill served a good use. I bitterly chewed on the meat with that thought in my head. Some of the loose ground began swirling around in the chilly winds. I did the best I could to shield my food from the grime. But no matter what I did, I still tasted the gritty debris settling in my mouth. I got up, grabbing the warm meal, and trudged along the road back to my shack.

Home. Or whatever that word meant these days. I peered around my shack. There was my makeshift bed composed of haystacks and cloth bundled together in the corner. Sometimes I would wake in the middle of the night with awkward pieces of hay sticking into my sides. But, it wasn't like I could sleep anyways. Racks for hanging cloths lined the other wall. I had not been fortunate enough to find a mirror but I didn't want one anyways. The rest of the shack was made from pieces of aluminum and rusty metal here and there and layered in bits of tarp to waterproof it. Of course, whenever a large storm arrived, there was no real stopping the leakage from coming through.

I sat on my bed, finishing my meal before lying down. I was tired, my muscles and mind sore. I rolled around trying to find a comfortable spot but truth was-I afraid of falling asleep. I was afraid of the nightmares that would come. After a few hours of lying around I realized that I wasn't going to sleep anytime soon. I stood up, wrapping my blanket close around me and decided to go out for a walk. I stepped out, feeling the cold chill of the morning winds. The streets had emptied. I stared into the dark night sky. They said that back then you could see formations of the stars. I think they were called consolations or something like that. After depleting our fossil fuels, no one on the earth has seen the night stars for quite some time. A metallic ping sounded out in the distance and I froze, peering into the distance. It was an empty can rolling around in the wind. At first, it would roll one way before quickly spinning around and aimless heading into another direction. It seemed lost.

I stopped, realizing I was like the can. I was lost. I didn't know what I was doing. I no longer knew what I believed in. I no longer knew who I was. But among all the confusion inside, I knew one thing-and that was, I no longer wanted this thing they called life. Life had taken its toll on me. Life had beaten me. Yet, every time I longed to put a bullet through my head, I just couldn't pull the trigger. I looked forward to the day where all my pain would disappear-to the day where I could stop drifting through life. But for some reason, every time something stopped me. Perhaps there was a god. Perhaps my punishment was to live. I didn't know. After everything that happened, it's hard to believe that was a god. For the past few years I've been wandering from town to town in the Outskirts, never staying around for too long. I was afraid to get connected. Lily's face popped into my head and I grimaced. I suppose that was the sign to start getting on the move again.

That was when I noticed the sun began to break the horizon. Streaks of red and orange painted the sky, highlighting the blackened clouds. Eerie shadows were casted onto the street from the surrounding shacks and buildings. I glanced down the road towards the main square, witnessing the debris scattered from the New Year's celebration. Every town in the Outskirts had a main square that held up a unique flag. Ours flew with a faded blue and red cross in its center. Ours. The word rang inside my head.

I shook the thought from my mind and continued dragging myself along the road. After getting tired from pacing around, I found a comfortable spot on a rock facing the horizon. I took a seat and peered into the distance, taking out my half circle necklace. I rolled it in between my fingers, feeling its smoothness from the years of scraping against my flesh. A muscle twitches in my jaw.

_Who gave that to you?_ Lily's voice echoed.

I clenched the necklace. The familiar sensation of wanting to tear off and flinging it into oblivion came over me but I resisted. I was not ready to let go.

I heard footsteps afar and I twisted my head around. In the distance I saw a dark figure. A long charcoal colored cloth hooded the person. At first I told myself that I was hallucinating, but after a few moments I knew I wasn't. My eyes narrowed and I cautiously stood up, weary of this new intruder. Outskirters rarely went from town to town. It was more than likely a gangster. But when I thought about it, it couldn't be a gangster because they never traveled alone. They always hunted and looted in packs like wolves. And from the way the cloaked man walked I could tell he was tired. He stumbled and an urge to run over to help him rushed over me. I was torn between helping the wanderer or running back to the isolation of my shack. It was then he saw me and picked up his pace. I instinctually grabbed at my side before realizing I had thrown my gun away years ago.

"Excuse me kind sir," the hooded figure said.

For some reason I knew that voice from somewhere only now the voice was more ragged and coarse. I didn't respond.

"I'm looking for someone," the man stated, coming within ten feet of me.

I should have ran away but for some reason after hearing his voice, after seeing the way he walked, something told me the man was not an enemy. I slowly took a seat back on the rock.

The man took a seat close to me, taking heavy breaths. I wasn't wrong about him being worn out.

"I've been looking for a rumored man. The other towns tell me I could find him here."

I glanced at him. I could make out the bottom of his face. Patches of gray and black sharp hairs littered his chin and jawline making a rough looking beard. "And who is it you are looking for?"

"Trieze."

At hearing that name I laughed. "Well sir you have traveled far chasing a lost dream. Trieze is rooted myth. There is no such person."

The man coarsely chuckled. Even his laugh seemed familiar. "Trieze, the pilot of one of the Exo-Frames. Trieze, the man who became a rebel. Oh no, he is very real."

I faced toward him. "And what makes you so sure about that?"

Beneath his hood I saw him break a smile. "Because I used to be his lieutenant, isn't that right shrimp?" He turned and looked straight at me. I almost fell off my rock. Even in the dim lighting of the morning and the dark shadows casted by his hood I knew that face. The voice, the laugh, calling me shrimp, it was impossible but here he was in the flesh.


	4. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Leo? B-b-but how?" I rambled.

He pulled down the hood. Although the years had worn him out as much as they had on me, he was still the same unmistakable Leo Varce.

"I saw you die!" I clamped my mouth shut at realizing how loud I was.

Leo flashed a smile. "Sorry to disappoint shrimp."

I stole a quick glance around making sure no one had noticed.

"Follow me," I told him. We got up and made our way to my shack.

I swung open the tin door that was tied to the wall with string. "Nice place you got," Leo said as we stepped in.

I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic. "It's not much but it'll do. Please." I indicated a place on my straw bed for him. He gratefully took a seat, relaxing his legs.

I started a fire in a little fire-pit in the middle of the shack.

"Since when did you learn how to set camp?" Leo laughed.

I forced a smile. "When I was about to die." I went and retrieved a iron pot and dumped some water from a small bucket into it and placed it above the fire. I took a seat on the ground.

"So how did you make it out alive?" I bluntly asked. "I saw your Grade crash."

Grades were humanoid war machines that most military regiments switched to after tanks became too immobile.

Leo took off his hood and folded it neatly beside him. "Always to the point. Long story short, I faked my death. I was tired of Xeta and with my rank and abilities there was no way they would release me from duty. And if I ran away they'll hunt me down and kill me. So what better than to fake my own death and switch sides?" Leo winked.

I considered what he said. There seemed to be something else about the whole situation that made me feel uneasy. Perhaps it was the three years spent in isolation. "So why are you looking for Trieze?"

"Talking in third person huh? That's a sign of too much loneliness my friend." Leo smiled wryly. "Well, I need him to..."

I stopped stirring the water with my ladle.

"...to come back into commission," he finished.

I quickly stood up, placing the ladle down. "I'm sorry but that won't be happening."

"Trieze..."

"No!" I interrupted, my anger igniting. "I'm done fighting." I sat myself down and went back to stirring the water.

"The war is still going on," Leo firmly said. "It's time to stop pretending that it's not. People are still dying."

I felt my blood boil. "And now you come here, all this way just tell me to kill more?"

Leo stared me straight in the eye. "You know how much this means to the world. If Xeta wins, we're finished. There's a new alliance out there. They call themselves HAR: Human Alliance Rebellion. They need you. We need you."

I laughed bitterly. "So what, we're going to plunge ourselves into another stupid bloody war?"

"Don't you get it? We can end this once and for all. The killings will stop! God has everything work out in the end."

At hearing God mentioned, I felt my blood pressure spike. "Hah, God. Don't tell you still believe in a god much less _the God_," I spat.

"It's the reason why I'm still alive."

"If there's a God then where the hell has he been? Where the hell was he when the innocent were dying before my eyes? Why the hell hasn't he stopped me?" I was on the verge of hyperventilating at this point.

At seeing me in my current state, Leo remained silent. After regaining my composure I asked, "And tell me exactly why are you fighting this war?"

"To restore peace on earth," he replied in a steady voice.

I snapped. All those years of pent up hatred released in one short instance. I roughly grabbed Leo by his collar, pulled him close, and stared at him right in the eye. By now I was literally breathing on him.

"Everyone says that exact damn thing but instead we just follow a circle back into destruction. How do you think Xeta tricked us? It was because they promised us peace and prosperity. Well look at us now! Where do you think we've been living in the past few years?" I was practically screaming at him now.

"Then tell me Trieze, what kind of future do you want?" Leo asked.

I choked. I stood there, struggling to find an answer. I thought of a beautiful valley with the lust green blades of grass and the soft sweetness of the cool breeze kissing at my neck. The gently rays of sunlight beamed down, illuminating the valley, exposing the majestic butterflies. The trees sang and danced with the wind: the rhythm of nature. I glanced up and saw a sky as blue as it could be. A sight I haven't seen in many years. The wispy white clouds rolling across the sky. Total sanctuary. Total peace. Total happiness. But most of all: total understanding of nature.

I loosened my grip on Leo's collar. My grip was so tight my knuckles became pure white and my hand numbed. I backed away, dropping to the floor. Leo walked towards me.

"How do you want to achieve the future that you want Trieze?" he asked, towering over me.

I glanced down at the floor. "I don't know. I just don't know," I replied, shaking my head. Leo kneeled down, looking me straight in the eye.

"Well I know. Join the HAR and fulfill your destiny. Restore the peace that we've always dreamed off from the beginning. Don't let our past comrades die in vain," Leo said, holding a hand out. I slowly looked back up at him and slightly hesitated before grasping his hand. That was when we heard the water start boiling. I retrieved the only tin cup I had and filled a glass for him. "It's hot," I warned. He nodded and gratefully took the water. After he slowly drank, I asked, "When do we head out?"

"This afternoon. But first I need to catch a nap, haven't slept in awhile."

"Wait how are we getting to the HAR base?"

Leo slyly grinned. "I brought a hould." Houlds were aerial vehicles similar to the old helicopters from the 21st century but more advanced in terms of maneuverability and tech.

It struck me. "So you were just acting to be tired?"

Leo gave me a smug look before lying down in my bed and dozing off. I chuckled. It's been awhile since I've been fooled. But I suppose Leo was a good actor. I tossed dirt from the ground onto the small fire and stomped out the ashes. I laid against my aluminum walls and soon found sleep over me...


End file.
